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Sunday, January 2, 2011

Funny And Odd Animals

A baby long-eared bat is hand-reared at Secret Animal Rescue in Somerset. Its ears - not fully formed yet - will eventually sit on the top of its head, not the sides

A tube-nosed fruit bat of the Nyctimene species, which is one of the exotic animals, some completely new to science, which have been discovered by experts from Conservation International on a trip to Papua New Guinea

Blue Reef Aquarium in Portsmouth has adopted four albino Chinese soft-shelled turtles that were donated to them by a student when she left university. The turtles have extremely long necks and tube-like nostrils which they use like a snorkel

Shrek the hairless wombat, who lost his hair due to a fungal condition caused by poor diet and the stress of being orphaned, is seen at the Maryknoll Wildlife Shelter, Melbourne, Australia

This is the appropriately-named blobfish, which can grow up to 12 inches long and lives at depths of up to 900m, making it rarely seen by humans

A baby Yemen chameleon, which has been bred for the first time at the Cotswold Wildlife Park near Burford, Oxfordshire and is on show at their Reptile and Amphibian nursery

Can you see the caterpillar on this leaf? Look closely. Conny Sandland was puzzled when evidence suggested leaves on the mango tree in her garden in Kuala Lumpur were being eaten. She said: "The mystery went on for a number of days before I spotted a flicker of movement on a leaf. I was startled when I looked closer as there was a caterpillar almost completely blending into the pattern of the leaf. I believe it is the caterpillar of the Common Baron butterfly"

A pink-eyed Caedicia, one of the 42 individuals of the leaf katydids (subfamily Phaneropterinae) discovered in the Muller Range mountains in the Pacific highlands of Papua New Guinea by scientists Piotr Naskrecki and David Rentz

Christine Nasser and George, a Great Dane from Tucson, Arizona, who has been declared the world's tallest dog. Giant George is the new holder of the title, measuring 43 inches (109cm) from paw to shoulder and 7ft 3in (2.2m) from nose to tail

A greedy chipmunk crams a peanut into its mouth. The ravenous rodent has become a regular sight after plucking up the courage to be fed by hand at the house where she has set up home. Christian Stepien took thise hilarious picture in his mother's backyard in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

A squirrel appears to be practising Tai Chi or Kung-Fu in a park in Moscow. The photographer said: "It was really bizarre. I was photographing the squirrel and it seemed to be making some really odd shapes with its front paws. It did look like it was doing martial arts. I think it had a small nut and was struggling to get to grips with it."

Mischievous squirrel monkeys appear to be enjoying the free transport as they ride around on the back of a capybara. The monkeys' antics were captured by photographer Sandra Astra at Hilvarenbeek Safari Park in the Netherlands.

A baby monkey named Miwa hangs on to a baby boar named Uribo while they run around in the Fukuchiyama City Zoo, Kyoto

A lazy monkey hitches a ride to the top of a tree - sitting on the back of a parrot. The squirrel monkey hopped onto the bird and wrapped his arms around its neck to avoid the 26ft climb. He lives with a male and female blue and gold macaw at a countryside hotel, where they always eat and play together. Photographer Alejandro Jaramillo was in San Agustin, Colombia, when he noticed the unusual friendship

A bison bull and a black-tailed prairie dog come face to face in Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, Comanche County, Oklahoma

A goat with a monkey on its back does a tightrope-walking act at a zoo in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China